Adding Architectural Details To Design Boards in Photoshop

Photoshop is my favorite tool for creating design boards - it's an incredibly powerful application that allows you to put together realistic-looking spaces, which in turn helps you communicate your design to your clients. There's definitely a learning curve to it, but you can do a LOT with it once you get a few basics down.

When I put out a request recently to find out what you'd be interested in learning more about, Photoshop tutorials was high on the list! Your wish is my command - I've got one of those to share with you!

Today I want to dive into how to make design boards look more realistic by adding some simple architectural details and that helps add perspective. By using the tips I share in this video, you'll be able to give your designs the appearance of a real room without spending hours on a rendering.

To get the most out of this tutorial, you should already be comfortable with the basics of Photoshop like removing backgrounds from furniture and moving objects around. If you can make a simple moodboard, you're probably ready to move onto this next step!

In this little video, you'll learn:

• How to add a back and side walls to put a room in perspective

• How I create a simple ceiling without doing anything extra

• How to add flooring, windows, and doors (and where you FIND those elements)

• How to manipulate architectural elements to make them look more three dimensional

By the end, you'll be able to turn a board from one that looks like this:

...to this (yay!):

As a little side note, my goal when I create design boards for clients is to help them visualize the space easily so they can say YES! to the design I've created for their room. I think the level of detail I show in this tutorial allows them to do that. You can certainly take things farther and make it look more like a 3D rendering, but remember - your time is valuable! You don't necessarily need to spend hours and hours on a rendering to communicate your design vision to your clients. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this tutorial!